GUILDERLAND — Seema Rivera, the president of Guilderland’s school board, will be moving on to a more powerful board.

She has been named a Regent-Elect of the state’s Third Judicial District, consisting of seven counties: Albany, Schoharie, Rensselaer, Greene, Columbia, Ulster, and Sullivan.

The Board of Regents governs education in New York state.

Rivera made the announcement at the close of Tuesday night’s Guilderland School Board meeting, explaining that she would not be running for re-election to the Guilderland board.

Rivera, who started her career as a public-school chemistry teacher, is now an associate professor of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education at Clarkson University’s Capital Region campus.

Rivera’s experience as an educator is far-ranging. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students and as a grant writer “does a lot of outreach, K through 12,” she said. After graduating from Binghamton University, she earned her doctorate from the University at Albany.

A Guilderland High School graduate, she was elected to the Guilderland board in 2015, became its vice president in 2018, and its president in 2019 — a post for which she has been unchallenged since.

During her tenure on the board, she was a strong proponent for diversity, equity, and inclusion as the board created the post of DEI director and Rivera served on the board’s DEI Committee.

She told The Enterprise on Wednesday that, when she graduated from Guilderland in 1997, the district was not nearly as diverse as it is today.

Rivera, who is Indian, and her husband, who is of Panamanian and Italian descent, have two children.

“My husband went to a predominantly white school in central New York,” Rivera said.

While the state has done a good job with standards that are culturally responsible, Rivera said, and while DEI has long been a focus in urban schools, “Suburban schools are becoming a lot more diverse. I don’t think a lot of people realize that,” she said.

On Wednesday Chancellor Lester W. Young Jr. and Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa sent out a release announcing three Regents — Christine D. Cea, Wade S. Norwood, and James E. Cottrell — had been re-elected for five-year terms and that Rivera, along with Hasoni Pratts of Brooklyn and Patrick A. Mannion of Onondaga County, had been named Regents.

“These Regents and Regents-Elect,” their statement said, “share our commitment to prepare all young people for success and create welcoming schools for all students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, housing status, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability to speak English, or disability status.

“Each Regent brings their own wealth of knowledge and fresh perspectives that will help us develop and implement educational policies and practices that reflect the Regents’ and Department’s commitment to equity and excellence in our State’s schools, colleges, and universities; libraries and museums; adult education and vocational programs; and in the licensed professions.”

Rivera concluded that she was “definitely sad” to leave the Guilderland board. “I really enjoyed the work,” she said. "I love the school district."